ne reassuring aspect of life in classic boats is that even the most experienced of us come unstuck in the end. Today, nearly all of us are compromised by the assumption of auxiliary power. The fishermen and pilot hands who pre-dated Mr Kelvin’s internal combustion engine thought differently. The miraculous ability to propel a vessel directly into the eye of the wind for further than she can carry her own way was entirely foreign to them, and that simple but profound fact had created a race of master-seamen. On my desk is an original photograph of a Bristol Channel pilot cutter careering towards the sea wall at Ilfracombe in storm conditions. She is reefed almost to the gaff jaws, her staysail is still set and she is balanced by a tiny spitfire jib on a bowsprit that is half run-in. What’s going to
